


darkest motions

by js71



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: ASL, Cassgender Cassandra Cain, Gen, Mentioned Batfamily (DCU), Multi, Mute Cassandra Cain, Non-binary character, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other, Polyamorous Character, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26330494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/js71/pseuds/js71
Summary: The ASL sign for stop was fairly simple. One hand held out flat, palm to the sky, fingers relatively close together. The other, in a similar position, would come down in a chopping motion, the pinky slamming into the palm of the opposing hand. Even if you weren’t fluent in ASL, the meaning was pretty clear.Cassandra’s second language was ASL. Her first was body language. Her second was still a form of body language, in a strange way, but it was a language that many knew, one that wasn’t unique to her alone.“Stop!” she signed, lips pressed together, and brow furrowed. The two people she was trapped underground with whipped their heads around, to face her, as the motion had caught both their eyes. “This is not helping!”
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	darkest motions

The ASL sign for _stop_ was fairly simple. One hand held out flat, palm to the sky, fingers relatively close together. The other, in a similar position, would come down in a chopping motion, the pinky slamming into the palm of the opposing hand. Even if you weren’t fluent in ASL, the meaning was pretty clear.  


Cassandra’s second language was ASL. Her first was body language. Her second was still a form of body language, in a strange way, but it was a language that many knew, one that wasn’t unique to her alone.

“Stop!” she signed, lips pressed together, and brow furrowed. The two people she was trapped underground with whipped their heads around, to face her, as the motion had caught both their eyes. “This is not helping!”

“Uh...” the taller one said, facing her properly, face lit up by the flashlight of his phone. “Are you deaf?”

Clumsily, he reached up with one finger to his ear, then swung it down to his chin, in the sign for deaf, before pointing to her. Cassandra shook her head, automatically tapping three fingers together like she had a sock puppet on her hand that was talking.

“No,” she signed, “I can hear.”

She jabbed her thumb into her chest forcefully, then lifted her hand to her chin. In the same hand position as deaf, she held her hand parallel to the ground and wiggled it up and down a bit to signal she could hear.

“Are you able to sign?” she questioned, movements slightly softer, expression twisting to alert them to the fact it was a question, not a statement. Pointing at him, then doing a variant of signing, making number ones with both hands and sort of pedalling them before her chest. He frowned, shaking his head.

“Sorry. I’m not entirely fluent.”

Cassandra nodded and looked at the other person. They were shorter, with blonde hair that was cut in a faux hawk, dyed pink on top. Repeating the question, just in case. “Can you sign?”

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” they admitted. Above all of them, the building shuttered, and Cassandra looked up. Dust tumbled down on them, and Cassandra coughed, pulling her hoodie’s hood around, to cover her mouth and nose.

After a few seconds, the building stabilized again, and Cass let go of the hood, looking to the one who had signed to her.

“My name is Cassandra,” she signed, jabbing her thumb into her chest, and then holding her pointer and middle fingers together, bringing one set down on the other, before spelling out her name, followed by her nickname. “Cass. What is your name?”

She pointed at him, then repeated the sign for name. He cleared his throat, nodding. “Right. Right.”

He started to sign, slowly, speaking as he did so. “My name is Max.”

Cass nodded, smiling brightly at him, and turned to the other person, asking for their name. They’d been paying attention, as they answered the question without Max having to translate.

“I’m Alex.”

Max had shuffled over, apparently keen to play interpreter, signing along with Alex, spelling out their name. Cassandra nodded, and turned around, studying the space.

They’d gotten lucky. In the parkade below Wayne Enterprises, certain areas were marked off as safe during an earthquake, or at least safer. The three of them had managed to scramble there, before the entire building - or most of the building - came down.

There was no visible way out, and Cass wasn’t too keen on digging their way out. They were only two floors below ground, and she had her phone with her - no signal, just like Max and Alex, but she had her phone with her, meaning someone would come for them.

“Hey, Cass?”

Max tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around. He gestured to the floor, where Alex was already sitting. Max’s phone was the one that was lying face-down, the flashlight feature illuminating the space. “Come sit.”

He signed sit, and Cassandra stepped over, sitting down as instructed. Alex bit their lip, fiddling with a small compact they held in one hand. Cassandra closed her eyes, breathing slowly.

“What do you think caused it?” Max asked, and Cassandra opened her eyes, shrugging.

“Don’t know,” she admitted, and Alex narrowed their eyes at her.

“You’re just a kid, why are you here?”

“My father is boss,” she signed slowly and deliberately, remembering that he didn’t have the same fluency her family did. “Bruce Wayne.”

“I didn’t know he had a daughter.” Alex crossed their legs, setting the compact on the floor, and looking to Max, once he’d done translating. “He has sons, doesn’t he?”

“Yes,” Cassandra confirmed. “I have a lot of siblings.”

“Tell us about them,” Max encouraged, and Alex gave him a look. “What, you have something better to do?”

They rolled their eyes but turned to face Cass, who started to think about the best way to describe her family. She began to sign, fluid and slow, for Max’s benefit, crafting her story.

“My oldest sister is Barbara,” she signed, the motions of Barbara’s name easy, familiar. “She’s good with computers, and she has red hair. She’s very smart.”

For red, she used the tip of her index finger to stroke her lips a single time, before she made the sign for hair. Max blinked at her. “Sorry, I missed that last bit.”

Cass sighed, and repeated the entire thing, replacing computer and red hair with finger letters. Once Max had translated for Alex, she spelled out the same signs, following that with the proper motions. He nodded, flashing them back at her, and she grinned.

“My oldest brother is Dick,” she said, and Max spluttered at that. She frowned at him. “Short for Richard. He is an acrobat, and very loud.”

“He chose to go by Dick?” Alex scoffed, and Cass nodded, making the sign for yes. “Not sure if I should be impressed or disappointed.”

Cass shrugged. “Jason is next. He swears a lot, but he likes to read more than anything. Read Percy Jackson to me.”

“That’s sweet,” Alex admitted. “I’ve always loved those books.”

“Never read them,” Max said and scowled when Cass laughed at him. “What! I’m busy, okay!”

Cass grinned, “Audiobooks? You can listen and work.”

She didn’t know the sign for audiobooks if there even was one. Instead, she made the sign for hearing, then the sign for books. Max pieced it together easily enough, looking pleased with himself for doing so, and Cass’s smile grew.

“What about your other siblings?”

“Tim needs more sleep,” Cass told them and could tell that both Max and Alex knew, even though the slight language barrier, that it was a little secret you laughed at, that wasn’t a secret. “He drinks coffee.”

“Don’t know that one either.”

Cass bit at her lip, and then made the sign for a drink, then pulled her eyelids back, so that her eyes were wide, making her look a bit crazy. She stuck her tongue out, and Alex let out a gasp of a laugh. Cass repeated it, and Alex clapped their hands together, pointing to Cass. “Energy drink!”

Close enough. Cass nodded and repeated the sign for coffee again. Max returned it, and she continued.

“Stephanie is very loud and bright,” she explained, keeping a bright smile plastered on her face to get the right idea across. “She likes waffles. And purple.”

“Like Spoiler!” Alex said, clapping their hands together. “I love Spoiler, she’s amazing. I follow her on Instagram and everything. God, she’s - I know she’s like, sixteen, but she’s really cute. I’m perfectly happy with my girlfriends, but like, still. She’s cute.”

Cassandra considered that. She knew that they got a lot of messages that Tim called moronic, Stephanie called rude, and Jason just downright hated, blocking and reporting those who sent them, but this wasn’t that kind of comment, right? This was a compliment.

She asked Max. She wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it, so she went with the best way she could. “Praise or bad thoughts?”

“Umm... Max swallowed, eyes going back and forth between Cass and Alex. “I - I -”

“What’d she say?”

“She’s wondering if you’re just complementing Spoiler or if you’re -”

“Of course not!” Alex yelped, looking both offended and disgusted, all at once, honestly ringing through them. “For god's sake, I have two lovely ladies at home, I don’t need a sixteen-year-old vigilante, that’s disgusting!”

“Good.” Cass signed sharply, expression blank, the ASL version of deadpanning. “No bad thoughts.”

“Yeah.” Alex laced their hands together. “Yeah, no way am I - ew. Just, ew. Can we keep going?”

“Damian is angry.” Cass gestured, more than happy to move on. “He likes animals and is secretly very sad. Duke is like him, and Stephanie, but he is bright. Very happy.”

She continued to tell her stories, giving Max and Alex a brief overview of her family, teaching Alex some signs as they went; they were a fast learner, it seemed, picking up the sign for name and the one for bright, which Cassandra used liberally for her siblings, for they were all bright stars in her mind. Then Max took a turn, going slowly as he spoke, trying to sign along. Cassandra tried to tell him that he didn’t need to, she could hear just fine, but he waved her off.

“I need the practice, and if I speak your preferred language, then I’ll speak it. Alex doesn’t mind, right?”

Alex shook their head. “Nope. It looks cool anyway.”

They then proceeded to gesture non-nonsensically, somehow making the sign for tree, but nothing else. Cass laughed, and the building above them groaned. She tried to ignore it.

Alex, as it turned out, worked in security. They were responsible for overseeing the main floors secretly desk, as a plainclothes security officer, to ensure the staff's safety. They’d attempted to join the army, but had been repeatedly warned not to enter, due to being non-binary. Instead, they’d worked at a taekwondo dojang and then been hired by WE.

Max was a translator, who’d been brought in to help with a meeting with the Korean WE branch. He was fluent in Korean, French and English, having been raised as a Korean-Canadian in Saskatchewan. His sign language was better than he seemed to think, and he was great at figuring out new signs from context.

“I was just getting on my shift,” Alex grumbled, crossing their arms. Max finger-spelt the last word, and Cass made the correct sign for it, which he then copied. Alex had paused to let them do their thing but continued once they were done. “If I was up there already, maybe I could have stopped this.”

“You don’t know that,” Cass pointed out. “Could be an earthquake, or maybe you’d be dead if you were up there. You’re safe here, that’s a good thing.”

“I don’t like feeling useless,” Alex groaned, running a hand through their hair, making it stand on end. “That’s why I do all the violent stuff, least it’s got a purpose. Probably also why I like the vigilantes so much, they make a difference.”

“Red Robin stopped by my cousin's coffee shop once,” Max said. “He wanted to know if he could see the security footage, they were tracking someone who dealt in -” he looked to Cass, who raised her eyebrows at him.

“I can take it.”

“Kids. Younger than you, how old are you, anyway?”

That was a difficult question. Cass looked to be about Stephanie or Tim’s age, but she might have been younger than them, and entirely possible she was older than them. Cassandra shrugged. “Sixteen.”

“Was taking eight-year-olds,” Max shuttered. “My cousin was more than happy to help, he gives the leftovers, the stuff he can’t sell because it’s a bit too old or burnt or whatever to the street kids, lets them sleep in the main room in the winter.”

“That’s sweet.”

And so it went. For a few hours. Max’s phone died, so they fumbled around to find Alex’s, and turned it’s flashlight on instead, after trying to call for help. Storytime lasted for a while longer before Alex told them both to let them sleep. They then pulled off their sweater and t-shirt, and curled up with their back to the two, using the clothing as a pillow. Cass wasn’t bothered, and Max very pointedly turned his back on Alex, in order to give them privacy.

The two of them signed back and forth for a while. Max had slipped back into the language well enough by that point, and they mostly just talked about his job and his cousin and Gotham, swapping stories and whatever else.

It was eight hours later, when Cass was starting to get thirsty and Alex had woken up and put their clothes back on, and they were teaching Alex sign language, that they heard something. Voices.

Max bolted to his feet, and started yelling, only for Alex to grab his shirt by the hem and yank him back down. “Do you want to bring it down on us!?”

“Why would yelling bring it -”

“An avalanche, you moron!”

Max shut up, and they put their phone numbers in Alex’s phone so that they could talk after the entire thing was over - Alex seemed to think it was far too hopeful, but they didn’t seem the most positive, even for a Gotham native. Max said they were doing it so that if they did die, then their families would end up talking to each other. Cass signed that they were both being idiots and pay attention, she was trying to teach them.

It was over twelve hours later when Alex was really starting to sign correctly and enjoy it, when they’d given up on speaking, just signing instead, that sunlight cut through the sky.

It wasn’t actually sunlight, nor was it cutting through the sky, but for a group who’d spent half a day trapped in a little alcove two floors underground, it was good enough, and the alcove ceiling had been their sky for hours by that point.

Cass clapped her hands together, and ropes were dropped down. Alex and Max sent Cass up first, and one of the EMT’s wrapped a shock blanket around her, herding her towards the medical tent.

She was asking questions, and every time Cass tried to answer them, the woman wrapped the blanket around her again, and it was very much frustrating. By the time Cass sat down on one of the cots, the woman was trying to speak to her in French, and that wasn’t helping.

It wasn’t until Alex appeared that they got the point across that Cass couldn’t speak without her hands, and well, none of the EMT’s present understood ASL, meaning that Alex, who only had three hours of practice under their belt, had to play translator until Max showed up.

Within fifteen minutes, the three of them were comfortable on the cots, and Kate had appeared out of nowhere, hands flashing through the air even before she got within earshot, catching Cass’s eye.

Kate’s signs were rushed and clumsier than usual, but her usual was razor-precision, so it was understandable, the worry still stuck in her features.

“Are you alright?” the ginger questioned, stumbling to a stop before Cass, who lifted her own hands to reply in kind.

“Fine,” Cass promised her. “This is Max, and Alex, they were with me underground. Max understands ASL, and Alex is starting to learn.”

Kate beamed and wrapped her arms around Cass, who returned the hug happily. “Glad to see you made friends,” Kate said aloud, laughter rimming her voice, and after a while, she got Cass signed out, confirming that Alex had called their girlfriends and was going to be picked up and that Max was getting a ride from his cousin.

Right before they left, while still in sight of the pair, Cass turned around and made the sign for love.

It was Cass’s favourite. It was two fists, arms crossed at the wrists in an X. To her, it meant to protect, to defend, strong, determination. It wasn’t just love. Speaking words were... simple. Signing words, to her, they were more.

But she didn’t just mean love. She combined the sign with the one for thanks, and then good-bye, before she turned around, and grabbed onto Kate’s hand, following her Batwoman home.

She couldn’t wait to go home.

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot find a single piece of artwork, comic or fan art or otherwise, that has Cassandra using ASL. And that, that is a shame.  
> Also, @absolute-0zero. Remember, like, two months ago, when you did the Avatar/DC art? And we had a really ragged conversation where I mentioned that I had like, fifty posts queued? Yeah, this was the last thing queued that night. *bows dramatically and shuffles out of the room backwards, fingers waving in what’s supposed to look cool but probably just looks stupid*
> 
> I take requests, asks and prompts on my [Tumblr](https://jc71.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> This story is free to read on AO3, and I have never given permission to anyone to post it anywhere else. If you have paid to read this story, then you have been scammed. If so, please inform me of what app or website made you pay, and other relevant details so that I might stop that from happening.


End file.
